FDA Extends Comment Deadline on Proposed Hazard Analysis, Produce Safety Rules

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the comment periods on two proposed rules related to foodborne illness prevention and produce safety that appeared in the Federal Register on January 16, 2013. In response to a request for a 90-day extension, the agency has increased until May 16, 2013, the comment periods for the proposed rules titled “Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food” and ‘‘Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption.”

Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the two new rules would (i) require both foreign and domestic food manufacturers “to develop a formal plan for preventing their food products from causing foodborne illness,” and (ii) establish “science- and risk-based standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables.” Additional details about the rules appear in Issue 466 of this Update. See Federal Register, February 19, 2013.